The Department of Agriculture (DA) has proposed to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the setting up of food hubs in major trade corridors nationwide.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel proposed a nationwide network of food hubs to President Marcos Jr. on Tuesday after visiting the successful food hubs in Thailand recently, DA spokesperson Arnel de Mesa told reporters in a briefing in Quezon City, on Wednesday.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), we were in Malacañang and the President initially agreed on these concepts.”
So far, the development of food hub facilities in Clark and Quezon Province is in the early stages, De Mesa said.
“The one in Clark will serve North Luzon and the one in Quezon Province will serve Southern Tagalog and Bicol. And then, there will also be some sort of similar projects in Luzon, in Visayas and Mindanao,” De Mesa explained. “That’s the initial target. The food hub will be like the experience of Thailand.”
The DA official said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel has advocated these projects as long-term solutions to the problems of local agricultural logistics and supply availability.
“This is something the secretary has seen in Thailand. That country has 20 of these food hubs that measure somewhere between 50 and 80 hectares… These can carry big volumes of vegetables and meat and every agricultural produce that can be traded everyday, and these will also have cold storages and all support infrastructures,” De Mesa said.
The DA said such facilities would help prevent sharp fluctuations in the prices of local agricultural goods.
“So, if you have this kind of facility, then you can have at least a system, which can tell you the right pricing of goods. With this, we will also not experience super high prices or extreme deficiency of products,” De Mesa explained.
However, De Mesa could not categorically say when the proposal for food hubs in Visayas and Mindanao would undergo feasibility studies, be contracted and break ground, but these have drawn the interest of President Marcos.
The agency earlier sent a local delegation to Thailand during the last week of February until March 2, to explore best practices, techniques and systems in farming, product development and agricultural supply chain management.
The DA had said its delegation also discussed bilateral trade opportunities and potential Thai investments in Philippine agriculture, with Thai counterparts and the private sector.
Among private sector commitments secured by the DA during the Thailand trip, were the planned establishment of a food processing facility and distribution network in the Philippines by Thai food and agri-industrial giant Charoen Pokphand Foods PLC (CPF) within the next three years, the DA said.
CPF is a company under Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group Co. Ltd., a conglomerate which also signed a partnership with the Maharlika Investment Corp. last month, to establish a private equity fund and raise up to $1 billion to accelerate investment in agriculture and food production, digital innovation and sustainable energy in the Philippines.
